Fishermen in Cape Breton say a glut on the market has caused lobster prices to drop drastically over the last few weeks.

They started their season late this year, to protest low prices.

Fishermen eventually agreed to go fishing for $4.25 a pound. Now in some ports, lobster are selling for as little as $3.25 a pound.

Fisherman Leonard LeBlanc of Cheticamp said he can't remember prices this low in 30 years.

"At $3.25 we're not covering our costs we're just trying to mitigate the expenses, at least pay some of them, not all of them and we're praying we don't have any major repairs."

The fishermen said the problem is a glut of lobster on the market. Catches are the best they've been in years, but there's little demand.

Veronica Brzeski, project manager with the Lobster Fishing Area 27 Management Board, said fishermen are realizing they need to get better organized and better informed. Her group is a non-profit that represents more than 500 fishermen from Bay St. Lawrence to Gabarus.

"Learning a lot more about the market system, learning perhaps how to negotiate or maybe how to adjust the way we're catching the lobster, or how much we're catching so that we can maximize our returns," she said.

Merrill MacInnis fishes out of Little River along the North Shore and said the low prices hurt more than just fishermen.

"At one time, Nova Scotia boat builders for example were going flat out building new boats, because money was good and fishermen were investing in the industry. Well now when you're just making enough to make your payments, people are not going to do that, they're going to keep going with what they have, and it'll have an effect on everybody whether it be car dealers, boat builders, restaurant owners, whatever, it all has an effect, it all trickles down."

MacInnis thinks the answer lies in aggressively promoting Nova Scotia lobster and finding new markets overseas.